While it‘s heartwarming to see the positive reaction of EU member states and leaders to the plight of people fleeing Ukraine, not everyone arriving in Europe and fleeing conflicts and persecution in other parts of the world receive the same reception and assistance.

Our teams continue to observe people being left to drown at sea, intercepted at sea and pushed back, denied assistance and criminalized for seeking safety. We want to make a point on the fact that the positive response to Ukrainian refugees shows that the EU has always had the tools to provide safe passage, good reception and that all they lacked was political will.